Intacts Surgery (for Kerataconus)

About 10 years ago I was diagnosed with kerataconus and let me tell you it's one bitch of a disease. When I first went to the doctor and discovered that I had this, they told me my first option would be to try glasses. Well I had those glasses made and they really improved my vision. Then the doctor said that we can improve your vision much more if we try RGP contact lenses aka hard pieces of plastic that you keep in your eye for 12 hours a day so you can see like everyone else. I upgraded to those and despite the pain, dry eyes, almost 2 weeks of adjustment they actual made my vison really sharp. I couldn't believe how bad my eyes were! Well, a year passed and that vision began to deteriorate. The docotr said I wouldh ave to be refitted. She tried and tried but the cone on my cornea would not allow her to fit my left eye probably. I accepted my fate and decided to just wear glasses. in the 8 years after that I went to a few doctors tried to get my eyeglass prescription updated and had many recommend RGP contacts to which I declined. The glasses began to feel like just that, glass. The lenses were no longer improving my vision they were just there. I decided I needed to try contacts again. So about a year ago I jumped back into the eye correcting game that I love so much. I found a doctor who tried to fit me with contacts a again. Atlhough it was still unsuccessful. She recommended that I get Intacs surgery. I agreed pretty quickly because I was eager to try something new. If you're not sure what it is, well you can look it up on google but it's these 2 ring segments that they put under your conea in order to reshape it and stretch out the cone, making it a little flatter and thus easier to fit a contact on top of it. rather that have it teeter-tottering and slipping all over my eye. Well the surgery only took about 1 hour. It was very quick and painless. I went to Kremer Laser Center in King of Prussia and Dr. Aronsky performed the procedure. To perform the procedure they start out by giving you a sedative(orally). You wait a little for it to kick in, whic hI never felt anything. They could've given me a multivitamin for all I know. Then they take you to the first room where they use a laser to cut the holes in your cornea in which they will insert the ring segments. Then they take you over to the next room where the doctor physically inserts the ring segments. They obviously numb your eue the entire time. So there is no pain and there was also no pain after the procedure. They put a soft contact over the eye after surgery because it may be a little rough where the laser had cut. They take that of during hte subsequent visits when they do a post-op check on your eyes. After the surgery I hadn't really noticed a change in my vision without contacts. on However, the surgery allowed to be fitted for contacts which really did improve my vision. Fast forward to a year and half later and I don't wear any eyewear. They eventually gave me 1 rgp contact for each eye and a soft contact to wear under the rgp in only one eey. It was a big process to put those in and take them out each morning and they were still painful to wear. So I stopped. I also still have very bad halos at night whether I wear anything or not. So I feel as if none of this is really helping me. However, I would recommend the surgery. It is quick and easy and really helps if you have kerataconus and are trying to get fitted for some contact lenses. Hopefully, your eyes aren't as bad as mine.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

GeoThermal Heat Pump

Back in October 2006 I made an appointment to have Geothermal Sytem installed in my house. Now if you dn't already know a geothermal system is an excellent way to heat and cool your home because it uses a completely renewable source of energy to heat and cool your home and that source is the earth itself. If you'd like to know more about how geothermal systems actually work you can google geothermal heat pump you'll get quite a few articles explaining it. However, you'll not find one bit of information about the actual process of installation and you definitly won't find a thing about having one of these systems installed a 160 year old 1000 square foot with no basement. Now I called a few places to have this done and here is how it went. First I called Sinton Air. They quoted me about 30000 for the job without even seeing it. I have unique circumstances so that number would probably have gone up if I had actually gone with them. Then I called Ground Loop. The dude that answered the phone gave me attitude about me not having a basement and how do I expect him to install it. I don't knwo what he quoted me. It could've be free and I still wouldn't have that ass come to my house. I found another place in the lehigh valley area. I don't remember the name, I obviosuly didnt go with them. I wasn't sure if they would work inm y location. However, the owener was very informative and gave me a price of around 10,000 installation. The one did I did finally go with was Chelsea Heating and Air located in Avondale,PA. They made an appointment to come to my house and measured everything and then sat down and discussed the whole process with me. It was a lovely husband/wife couple that came over. They were very nice and they had the best pricing. There was no doubt I would go with them. They quoted me 8600 dollars for the installation and 4000 for the well drilling which the get K.L. Madron to do. Also a very nice guy. SO the total was about 13000 dollars for the whole thing. Here how the proces went: The well drilling and ductwork/unit installation were independent of each other until the lines from the well outside had to be hooked up to the unit inside. AS I had mentioned before my hosue has no basement and is only about 1000 square feet. I had a section of it redone and thank god for this or I would never be able to install it. The unit itself went into the utilty room It is a Climatemaster 2.5 ton unit. It is about the size of a refrigerator and sounds like one when it is actually heating or cooling. It is completely silent when only the fan is running. The new part of my house has a very high ceiling which is slanted followingthe shape of the roof. The ductwork was hung on the ceiling in the triangular area of this uppermost slant. This all worked out very well because that part the ceiling spanned hte length fo my house. The ductowrk was hung right across and basically holes were punhed to put vents in all rooms upstairs and down. There was lot of wall cutting to do and Chelsea Heating and Air actually cleaned up after themselves each day. I was very impressed. Now inside my house stayed prett yclean during the installation but the outside was a complete mess due to the well drilling. The truck to drill teh well was bigger thanI had ever imagined. I couldn't believe they got it through my gates. They had to leave it there until they were finished and there were a few days that I got hoem and actually had to keep driving and go to he store until they left because there was nowhere to put my car. I live in a very wet area and I'm not sure if the drilling uses water or if this water came out of the ground naturally but my entire front yard was a muddy lake. I could hardly walk through it. It took months for it to clear up it actually prompted me to get my driveway paved as it wasn't before this. I'm not really complaining about this. There was no way of avoiding it but just know that it is a very messy process. Anyway everything was finally installed and running and it's one of the best purchases I'ver ever made. I do live in a small house but with either the heat or the air-conditioner on, my electirc bill has not exceed 110 dollars a month and my house is entirely electric. It's actually higher in the winter because I can't shut the heat off in the winter. Although I can shut the A/C off on cool days in summer. Also this unit creates hot water. My Hot water heater is set to the lowest setting and hte water still coems out piping hot after installing the geothermal. It's also godo to knwo that I am not using an fossil fuels to heat/cool my home. Yes perhaps at a power plant they are burning coal to create the electricity I use. Atleast, I am not using any foreign oil!

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Becoming a Sperm Donor

So as I said in one of my recent blog about a year ago. I was going to share my experience of becoming a sperm donor. Well, I never actually become one. I was totally shot down. I wasn't surprised though. They say they have high standards and basically their main criteria is that not all of your sperm dies when they test freeze it and I guess mine did so no donating for me. However, I'll tell you what occurs up the the rejection point. I live in the Philly metro area so my closest donor bank is at the University of Pennsylvania. It must be new because I used to work there and knew nothing of it. If I had I would've gone o na lunch break because getting there and parking is kind of a hassle. Their hours are very short. They are around 8 to 3 Monday to Thursday and a little shorter on Friday. Luckily I have a half day on Fridays so I had time to drive down. To start off you must send in an application.Then they send you a form to fill out for detailed medical info. Then they ask to make an appointment with you. This is all done through Fairfax Cryobank at 123donate.com. You go in. They explain what you will do. They give you a cup and a little questionnaire. You must fill the cup, then fill out the questionnaire. The questionnaire basically asks how long since your last ejaculation(they prefer you "rest" at least 72 hours before donation day). YOu Then put the sample with questionnaire in an incubator and just leave with no more contact with anyone. Then they will call or email you to tell you have not met their criteria. They say they give you 3 tries to get a good sample and 2 must be acceptable but I guess mine was so poor they turned me down after only one. Anyway, if you male and between the ages of 18 and 3o-something you should give it a try. You get money and you secure your genes for future generations? What more cna you ask for? Okay well let's not get into that.

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Upcoming posts

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Review: Concept2 Rowing Machine

I haven't added many reviews to this blog quite yet, but it seems to be that I only tend to review things that I am extraordinarily happy with. Ofcourse, this would fit the description. I love my concept2 rower, but it wasn't always this way. Once upon a time I didn't have this incredible machine. Now, everyone has heard that it is good to exercise aerobically 3 to 5 to 6 days a week for 30 minutes to an hour and anything in between. It's good for your health and it makes you feel like your doing something positive for your life. So I decided long ago that I would do this to keep myself healthy. First, when I was a senior in high school, I bought a stationary bike. I've always been to shy to run outdoors, and a treadmill was just to big and expensive, So this was a logical choice, and it did the job. When I first got it I biked for an hour, while I watched x-files. time went by real quick, I felt healthier, and I even lost a little weight. Fast forward to 7 years later and I'm freakin tired of that damn stationary bike. Actually the first one that I bought had the handles bars break off, which kind of worked out my back a little more because I sat straight up while using it, but then I stole my mom's bike when I moved out. Either way, I was tired of it. The stationary bike can really get your heart rate up, but that's all it seems to do.I know what your thinking. it's aerobic exercise, it's mainly supposed to work your heart, but hey, no one can see how big and sexy my heart got. As a matter of fact my legs didn't get exceptionally strong either. the bike just didn't seem to do much for my external musculature. I even used to try pedaling backwards, and getting down on the floor and pedaling with my arms to work that, but really nothing happned. Enter the concept2 rowing machine. I don't know how I got into it, but I grew a sudden interst in rowing. I live about an hour from philadelphia, and the only place to row( I'm actually referring to sculling) is the schuylkill river. Yiu have to pay for membership, take classes, and also find time to go down there and actually row. I gave up on that before I even tried. So I decided maybe I should just get a rower, for a the workout benefits. it'sa good aerobic workout, and it works ALL of the major muscle groups in your body. Well, after googleing about rowing machines for approximately 2.5 minutes. I found that the concept2 is the best one out there, and you might come to the same conclusion if you were doing the same research. it's really cool because it has some sort of strange following. like a cult or something. The only problem with this exqusite rower is the price. About $900 shipped. After much thinking, about 3 months worth, I decided to get it. $900 dollars and 3 weeks later, I am loving this thing! Let me juts start by telling you that the first time I rowed on this thing, I couldn't last more than 5 minutes! I thought I would die if kept going. Then next dday I felt like I got hit by a bus. I love that feeling! It makes me feel like I accomplished something. Like I can feel my body changing. I've already mentioned that this thing works all your major muscle groups and that definitely proved to be true. I never had upper body strength, now I atleast feel like I do. My muscles are toned. I'm not sure if that really got any bigger, but they get worked out a lot more often than if I was biking. Also, rowing does wonders for your posture. I think I grew about 3 inches because it makes your back muscles much stronger. I've ready that rowing is 70% legs or some high percentage like that. I honestly don't feel it in my legs. I feel it mostly in my upper body. Maybe all that biking did do something to my legs, you can only grow so much muscle on aerobic exercise machine. I think I've reached the leg limit, but I do feel it more in the butt area, than I did on the bike. So it really works out all of your muscles pretty well. I don't jog, but I don't know of anything that would work this many muscle groups all at the same time. Possibly swimming and skiing, but I don't care for those. Actually, I do like to swim, but there is almost no resistance and have you ver gotten really tired when swimming hard? I think that's one of the few exercises that you could die from if you relax. Atleast if you stop rowing, at home or in a boat, you won't drown! Another thing I like about the concept2 rowing machine is the PM3 monitor. You've probably seen something like this before, but i've never seen one with some many cool feature. keep in mind I've never worked out in a gym or used those fancy machines. I haven't used all of the features yet, but the one that a really like is the log that it creates after each exercise session. You can go back an see how long you rowed the last time you rowed. It keeps all of the information from every rowing session. I like to compare my stats. I enjoy seeing the improvement and it encourages me to keep going. I started out rowing for only 5 minutes and now I'm up to 40 minutes! My goal is an hour, but if I plan on doing this 5 or 6 times a week, then I may just stick with 30 minutes. So do you want one yet? Well ,hold on there is one disadvantage. it's a little large. I think it's almost 7 pr 6 feet long. I may be exaggerating,but I really don't feel like measuring. the only good thing there is that it can be taken apart and stored in 2 large pieces. These tow pieces can be stored upright to save space. It's very light for it's size. Dismantling it and putting it back together is simple and takes seconds, literally. Size may not even be a problem for you. I happen to live in a tiny house with no basement and only a loft for an upstairs. I also only have one closet in the whole house and I can would across the house in 3 long strides. Therefore, I have to keep my concept2 out in the open and I must always dismantle it when I am finished with it. That being said I still love it, and despite the fact that I have to move it around my house, dismantle it, put it back together, bring in the living room, store back in the other room, I still use it every other day. I think that says a lot for it. I would bother doing all that if I didn't absolutely love it and enoy using. So are you ready to get one yet? Well, what are you waiting for? Go get one, and feel the burn!

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

I've decided...

I will try to start categorizing my posts. It's better for me, the blogger and you, the reader. So far I will have such categories as: Reviews, Definitions, Experiences.. and perhaps more. These "categories" will really only be titular. Lets see what happens. As always comments are greatly appreciated.